Republicans Step Up Attacks Against Reid

Top Republicans condemned Senator Harry Reid Sunday, accusing the Senate majority leader of fabricating an assertion that an unnamed Bain Capital investor had told him that Mitt Romney has not paid taxes over a 10-year period.

“I just cannot believe that the majority leader of the United States Senate would take the floor twice, make accusations that are absolutely unfounded, in my view, and quite frankly making things up to divert the campaign away from the real issues,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, was even more direct in his criticism of Mr. Reid on ABC’s “This Week,” dismissing the speculation about Mr. Romney’s tax returns as “a made-up issue” and calling Mr. Reid a “dirty liar.”

“As far as Harry Reid is concerned, listen, I know you might want to go down that road — I’m not going to respond to a dirty liar who hasn’t filed a single page of tax returns himself,” Mr. Preibus said.

The back-and-forth this week over Mr. Romney’s unreleased tax returns spilled onto the Sunday talk shows after Mr. Reid told The Huffington Post he had learned of what he said was Mr. Romney’s failure to pay taxes from a caller to his office, an assertion he repeated on the Senate floor. But the senator has provided no evidence to support his claim, and Mr. Romney has released two years of tax data showing he paid taxes for the years of 2010 and 2011.

While campaigning in Mr. Reid’s home state of Nevada Friday, Mr. Romney said he had paid taxes every year, firing back, “Harry Reid really has to put up or shut up.”

Meanwhile, Democrats continued their attacks on Mr. Romney Sunday, with Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, questioning why Mr. Romney won’t release more of his tax returns.

“I don’t know who Harry Reid’s source is, but I do know that Mitt Romney could clear this up in 10 seconds by releasing the 23 years of tax returns that he gave to John McCain when he was being vetted for vice president. Or even 12 years of tax returns that his own father said were what was appropriate,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Mr. Romney could easily put the issue to rest with a trip to Kinko’s to make copies of his tax returns.

“I’ll send him the nickels,” he said.

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Attacks on Mitt Romney Over Tax Return Issue Are Unfair (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Few presidential candidates have faced more pressure to make available their tax returns than Mitt Romney. Despite the fact Rick Santorum and Ron Paul have also not released their tax returns, as revealed in a South Carolina debate, the former Massachusetts governor is being singled out by the media. The hyperbole scrutiny of Romney's tax returns reveals bias in the part of the media.

If Romney was a salaried man with less than eight-digit figures in his bank account, he would not have faced the same pressure to release his tax returns as he is now. People love a narrative. A successful and wealthy businessman must have a lot of skeletons in his closet, and hence we need see his tax returns. Even if Romney decides to release his tax returns at this instance, the media will follow up and demand to see returns from previous years and decades.

What the media seems to forget is that they are journalists and not auditors. It is the job of the IRS to scrutinize Romney's tax returns for problems. All the media will do is scouring the Michigan native's returns for politically inexpedient details and magnifies them. The decision to release tax returns should be his to make and for the public to judge.

Legally, Romney has the right not to disclose his tax returns. Moreover, he is only a candidate and not the president. If Romney is elected to the presidency, he will likely follow traditions and release his tax returns every year of his term. The media obsession over Romney's tax returns gives the impression that presidential candidates are required to make public their returns, which is incorrect.

Ultimately, it is more prudent for Romney to release his tax returns as soon as possible to temper the controversy. To his credit, the Michigan native has indicated that he will make available his tax returns in April. Four years ago, GOP nominee John McCain also released his tax returns in April. All in all, Romney's wealth is expected to continue to be a hotly debated topic in the 2012 Republican race.

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Romney wrestles with GOP attacks on corporate past (Reuters)

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Mitt Romney is poised to take a big step toward the Republican U.S. presidential nomination on Tuesday by capturing New Hampshire, hoping to ride out last-minute attacks from his rivals and recover from a self-inflicted wound.

The former governor of neighboring Massachusetts carried a sizeable lead in polls into voting day, a sufficient cushion that should force rivals Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum into a battle for second place.

Romney, 63, would be the first Republican who is not an incumbent president to win the first two early voting states, after his slim eight-vote victory over Rick Santorum a week ago in the Iowa caucuses.

A more resounding win on Tuesday would give him momentum going into South Carolina on January 21 and Florida on January 31. He leads in both states and victories there could all but sew up his nomination to face Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 6 election.

"You're going to make a big statement tomorrow, let's take it to the next step, give me the boost I need, I hope," said Romney in Bedford on Monday night at his final rally of the day.

It was unclear how much damage had been done by a mess of his own making in which Romney declared "I like being able to fire people," in addressing his desire for greater competition between health insurance companies.

His opponents, Republican and Democratic alike, quickly seized on the comment as evidence of an out-of-touch politician and coupled it with attacks over his record at Bain Capital, a firm that bought companies and restructured them.

"Governor Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs," Huntsman said.

In a remarkable turnaround in a party known for being friendly to business, Republicans seeking to slow Romney down sounded more like populists as they bashed Romney's work as a venture capitalist.

Gingrich, brooding over negative attacks from Romney and his backers that knocked him out of the front-runner position, has launched the toughest onslaught on Romney.

"Mitt Romney was not a capitalist during his reign at Bain. He was a predatory corporate raider," says a video produced by a pro-Gingrich group.

New Hampshire voting stations close at 7 p.m. EST (midnight GMT). About 250,000 people are expected to vote in the Republican primary while 75,000 are likely to vote to endorse Obama's re-election.

HUNTSMAN HOPING FOR 'BONANZA'

"Mitt Romney, I think he will come out on top," said voter Albert Guptill in Nashua. "By how much, I don't know, but I think he will, yeah."

But not everyone was happy about voting for him.

Eli Haykinson of Bedford said he did not want to vote for Romney but might have to because he could have the best chance to defeat Obama.

"I personally don't like his huge campaign style. You don't really get to feel him at all. I don't want to vote for him but I may have to," Haykinson said.

The Monday Suffolk University tracking poll had Romney at 33 percent, Paul 20 percent, Huntsman 13 percent, Gingrich 11 percent, Santorum 10 percent and undecided 12 percent.

Since victory looked out of reach for Romney's rivals, they were waging a fierce battle to sway undecided voters their way in the final hours and win second place.

Both libertarian Representative Paul and Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador to China, have been on the rise in recent days.

"It could be a bonanza," Huntsman told CNN.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Santorum, who nearly won Iowa by appealing to social conservatives, has found that his message in New Hampshire is not attracting the same surge of support.

He and Texas Governor Rick Perry, along with Gingrich, are looking to South Carolina to challenge Romney as his conservative alternative.

Romney leads there for now but Gingrich backers have launched $3.4 million worth of ads in South Carolina to try to slow him down in the conservative state.

(Additional reporting by Ros Krasny, Sam Youngman, Jason McLure and Mary Milliken; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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